The OAS General Assembly will elect four members of the Commission in June

Washington D.C., February 16, 2011. The Organization of American States (OAS) will hold its annual General Assembly in San Salvador (El Salvador) from 5 to 7 June this year. In this context, the member States of the Assembly will elect four of seven members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), an independent body of the OAS which promotes and protects human rights. The selection of / the Commissioners / as a key inter-American system, which calls for justice in cases of violations of human rights in the Americas process.

The mandate of the / the Commissioners / as is four years, renewable once. Four of these mandates expire this year: Felipe González (Chile), current president of the IACHR, Luz Patricia Mejía (Venezuela), María Silvia Guillén (El Salvador) and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro (Brazil). The first three can be nominated for a second term but Pinheiro’s second term expires this year. To date have been submitted the following nominations: the two women, Rosa María Ortiz (Paraguay) and Tracy Robinson (Jamaica) and three sons, Paulo de Tarso Vannuchi (Brazil), Guillermo A. Cochez (Panama) and Victor Garcia Toma (Peru).

According to Article 3 of the Statute of the IACHR each government may propose up to three candidates, whether nationals of the state proposing them or any other member of the Organization.

The choice of the Commissioners will be by a majority vote of the Member States of the OAS. The deadline for registration of candidates / ace expires next March 7. The mandate of the / the three Commissioners / remaining as: Dinah Shelton (USA), Rodrigo Escobar Gil (Colombia) and José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez (Mexico) expires in 2013.

Articles 73 and 75 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly have more information on this process.